• a foundational dance curriculum for all students.
• opportunities for student specialisation.
• implications country wide.
• implementation - resources, generalist & specialist teachers, standards & assessment.

2011 International Dance Day Message

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Why the world stage is so important today for Australian dance?

Carin Mistry
Director of the Dance Board of the Australia Council for the Arts

Until the 1970’s, many successful Australian dancers just packed up and left for Europe. For most, this was a permanent move – there was little zipping back and forth between the hemispheres – for most, a choice had to be made. Europe offered them an established dance infrastructure, a dance culture of practice and appreciation, with career opportunities not then available in
Australia.

Today, the Australian dance industry is much larger but, perhaps more than other artists, dancers and dance companies still feel the need to test and to develop themselves internationally.  This still isolated dance industry is gathering now in Melbourne for Dance Massive, a fortnight of workshops, performances and discussions involving more than 200 Australian dance artists and a host of international and national presenters. It is timely to ask why international connections remain so important and how this relates to our need to sustain excellent dance at home.

The reasons for maintaining an international context are complex and interconnected. It can be about income generation, creating a longer life for great works, the purpose of soft diplomacy, prestige, career development, creative development or finding partners to invest in the making of new works. Adelaide based Australian Dance Theatre is currently in the middle of a three month tour of Garry Stewart’s new work, Be Yourself. They will tour to 17 cities in nine European countries. For the company this is more than just a market development exercise; Be Yourself is a co-production with three European theatres which means these partners are investing in both the creation and the presentation of a new work. At much the same time, Bangarra Dance Theatre will be performing their newest work, Spirit, in 17 theatres across Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Melbourne’s Chunky Move also have been building their international connections over the years but that overseas exposure has grown significantly with the interest generated by works such as Glow and Mortal Engine. Over the last four years Chunky Move have toured to 16 countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

So, international connections can be about growing markets and about extending the life of great work, but for the majority of companies and dancers it is also about something more – it is lure of new influences, new ideas and new perspectives and the effect this can have on their creativity and the quality of their work.  This is where, in 2011, the link between international exposure and growing the excellence of our dance work seems to be strongest. Of course, only the best of Australian dance survives in a competitive international arena. However, once in this larger arena, Australian dance artists seem to not only to survive, they most often thrive – they eat up the new influences, perspectives and ideas. They get to benchmark their work, to compare and contrast, to push and stretch their practice in highly critical environments – to make their work better. The Australia Council recognizes this and makes significant investments in this overseas market. We are bringing international presenters to Dance Massive this month in Melbourne, investing in Australian and overseas performing arts markets and supporting international tours through the Going Global fund. The Dance Board also currently runs a three month residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris available for dance artists and hopes to offer more such residencies, as is the practice by other artform boards.

An increasing number of our dance artists are based overseas and running careers, unlike their predecessors, with a focus back home on Australia’s dance culture. Grayson Millwood and Gavin Webber are Australian artists who also call Germany home and create work that spans two continents. Their most recent work, Food Chain, has German and Australian producers and so has been created and will be performed in both countries. Younger dancer/choreographers such as Antony Hamilton and Gabrielle Nankivell are following the trend of working in two hemispheres.  

Although larger than in the 1970’s, the contemporary dance scene in Australia is still relatively small and mostly concentrated in Melbourne and Sydney. In many cases, artists and companies work in relative isolation. But dance is fundamentally a collaborative medium and artists inspire and push each other on. Connecting with other artists across the country and across the world can help to avoid the danger that Australian dance practice becomes insular and complacent and declines in quality. If Australian dance is to truly thrive, it must expose itself to audiences and to the industry nationally – and internationally. Events such as Dance Massive, the Sydney Opera House’s annual Spring Dance program and the National Dance Forum provide important opportunities to enable this to happen, and to happen regularly.

Important issues for dance were discussed this weekend at the National Dance Forum, staged by the Australia Council and Ausdance National as part of Dance Massive. The forum provided a rare opportunity for the dance sector to consider the state of dance practice in Australia and chart a course for the future. We saw lively discussion and debate around how we articulate a dance practice, career development, dramaturgy in dance, how we use new media and the digital technologies, hybrid and interdisciplinary practices, dance on film and dance in local communities. Technology in dance is commonplace now, as is the crossover with other artforms. But while it adds a new dimension to the experience of watching dance, the balance between performance, storytelling, technology and audience connection is a fragile one.

I look forward to these discussions continuing long after the forum. But all these questions can’t be answered by reference just to the Australian dance experience. As we resolve them and chart our own dance practice, I suspect all our leading dance innovators will also be talking about their experiences and aspirations to continue to work in Australia and on a world stage.
 

Survey Participants Needed for Research Study of Teaching Artists in Dance and Theatre

Title of Study:  Transforming Urban Centers through Community-based Performing Arts:

A Qualitative Study of Teaching Artists in Dance & Theatre

Professional teaching artists in theatre and dance are invited to participate in a research study investigating the experiences and attitudes of arts educators working in urban environments in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. The on-line survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. Participants may also be invited to participate in an interview or focus group that asks similar questions. For those participating in an interview or focus group, an additional one to two hours will be necessary. Taking part in this study is voluntary.

Please click on the following link, which will take you to the Zoomerang
survey: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AZ6WW3AAN

View and Vote for ENTANGLEMENT THEORY Online

Until Monday March 7 only, you can view, vote and leave your comment online for The Physical TV Company’s acclaimed ‘mixed reality’ dance film ENTANGLEMENT THEORY at the World of Women (WOW) Online Film Festival: https://www.indieflix.com/festivalsonline/wow2011/films/32276/

Thereafter at 8.30 pm on Wednesday March 9, ENTANGLEMENT THEORY will be screened at the Dendy Opera Quays, the cinema near the Sydney Opera House; http://www.nsw.wift.org/wow/index.htm

Directed and choreographed by Richard James Allen, ENTANGLEMENT THEORY mixes live dancing with dance recorded in a virtual world in a world first mix of real life and Second Life dance.  ENTANGLEMENT THEORY was shortlisted for Best Editing in a Short Film at the 2010 Australian Screen Editors Guild Awards and was a Top 10 Finalist for Best Experimental at the 2010 Atom Awards.  It won high praise in the Italian media and from the The New York Times and RealTime and has screened at 23 festivals around the world - the next being Sydney's World of Women Film Festival (WOW) on Wednesday 9 March at the Dendy Opera Quays at 8.30pm, to be followed by an Australian tour.   In the meantime, however, you can view, vote and commentOnline via indieflix at the World of Women (WOW) Film Festival.  Please register, view, vote and you can comment now - https://www.indieflix.com/festivalsonline/wow2011/films/32276/

For more information on ENTANGLEMENT THEORY, click here: http://www.physicaltv.com.au/DanceFilmEntanglementTheoryrichardJamesAllenkarenPearlmangaryHayesmixedRealityLiveActionsecondLifeMachinima_619_1307_3_0.html

Educators can download the Metro Magazine Study Guide for ENTANGLEMENT THEORY here: http://www.metromagazine.com.au/studyguides/emailissue.asp?id=714

The Physical TV Company’s website: www.physicaltv.com.au 

GIDEON OBARZANEK TO STEP DOWN AS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF CHUNKY MOVE AT THE END OF 2011

7 December 2010

After fifteen years as Artistic Director and CEO of leading Australian and world-renowned dance company, Chunky Move, Gideon Obarzanek has announced that he will be stepping down at the end of 2011 to pursue other freelance opportunities in dance and other art forms. While he will continue to work on touring productions in an associate director capacity the following year, he will hand over to a new Artistic Director and CEO at the beginning of 2012.

Gideon Obarzanek, Artistic Director says:
“Chunky Move has literally been the greater part of my adult life. The organization has allowed me extraordinary creative flexibility on so many different, unique and exciting projects with an array of inspiring artists. So now, having considered my future departure, it feels as though I will be strangely uncoupling from a significant part of myself. I do however want to realise some future ideas and adventures independently and it is time for me to create that opportunity. Dance has been such an inspiring art form for me and it is my hope that Chunky Move continues to reinvent and push the boundaries of what dance can be within our ever-evolving contemporary culture.”

Gideon Obarzanek founded Chunky Move in 1995. During its thirteen years as Victoria’s flagship dance company Chunky Move has premiered over 25 new productions, creating a body of work that is both diverse in form and content, including site specific, new media, installation and stage work and earning an enviable reputation for producing a distinct yet unpredictable brand of genre-defying dance performance. Under Obarzanek’s directorship, Chunky Move has evolved into Australia’s most successful contemporary dance export, touring to more than 30 cities and performing in just the last twelve months to more than 10,000 international dance lovers. The company has performed at the Luminato Festival in Toronto and the Venice Biennale earlier this year, and in early 2011 will perform in  New York, Middle East, Korea, and Barcelona. Back home, it has played a vital role through initiatives such as Next Move, Choreolab, Maximised and secondments to foster and support a strong and vibrant dance culture in its home city of Melbourne.

Peter Biggs, Chair of the Chunky Move board says:
" This is an exciting - but also sad - moment in Chunky Move's history. We will say farewell to our founder and, in so many ways, our artistic soul. But, at the same time, we have an opportunity, with Gideon's help in 2011, to find a new and world-class Artistic Director/CEO who will define and implement a new long-term artistic vision. I want to recognise Gideon's massive contribution to Chunky Move and its success - it is his extraordinary vision and talent that have made the company such a success at home and around the world - and thank him for his generosity in giving us a full year to do the almost impossible: hire and transition in a successor who is as outstanding as Gideon is."

Chunky Move will be looking to appoint a new Artistic Director in mid 2011. The position will be advertised in January 2011. The appointment will commence work in 2012.
 

The 2010 Helpmann Awards®